What to do when your main girl isn't giving enough milk?
Aug 3, 2019 18:04:00 GMT -5
Shawn, throwback, and 13 more like this
Post by treatlisa on Aug 3, 2019 18:04:00 GMT -5
You get another one, of course!
I panicked when my 2nd calver wasn't keeping up with needs around here. (Miss you Dylan!) Camo dried herself off at 6 months fresh while nursing her first calf last year but got a pass because she was bred young (1 yr old) before I bought her. (I opted to let her have it.)
I gave her another chance and this year, at 3 months fresh, she started dropping production. :/ I have hungry pigs and we use lots of cream. This is NOT good. She is in fantastic condition, wants for nothing, but she has a splash of Normande in the wood pile and it may be the beefier kind - she is mostly Jersey. Whatever the problem is - it's not working for me. I separated the calf and am letting it nurse morning and night and she seems to be holding steady with that program for the time being. It seems counterintuitive but when I kept them together the calf was sipping all day and things just kept getting worse. I mostly separated to get a better estimate of what she is producing - I take a gallon in the morning from the front as the calf gets the back. Calf takes it all at night.
So, I quick scan craigslist for any possibles and come up with only one that looks promising. 5 years old, 2nd lactation, (had a long first) nice udder, good hand milking teats, shiny coat - so I head out for a 3 hour drive to find a pitiful skinny cow with horribly long feet. :/ The picture in the ad was 30 days old and she had really dropped off since that time. 3+ months fresh like my girl and not bred back - (fine because I have a little bull this year) Pleasant submissive personality, easy milker and coat was shiny - I brought her home.
Sent the milk off for testing and meanwhile have been feeding the pigs with her milk. Testing came back good and she is gaining weight while upping her production every day... YAY!! The lady that had her was new to cows, had horrible hay and giving her a double handful of barley when she milked.
For a few days after - I was wondering if I had made a mistake because she was scary thin when I loaded her but -*horrifyingly emaciated* by the time I got her unloaded 3.5 hours later. OMG. A diamond in the rough is what I was going with.
Anyway, meet Bess... I've had her 1 week today.
I panicked when my 2nd calver wasn't keeping up with needs around here. (Miss you Dylan!) Camo dried herself off at 6 months fresh while nursing her first calf last year but got a pass because she was bred young (1 yr old) before I bought her. (I opted to let her have it.)
I gave her another chance and this year, at 3 months fresh, she started dropping production. :/ I have hungry pigs and we use lots of cream. This is NOT good. She is in fantastic condition, wants for nothing, but she has a splash of Normande in the wood pile and it may be the beefier kind - she is mostly Jersey. Whatever the problem is - it's not working for me. I separated the calf and am letting it nurse morning and night and she seems to be holding steady with that program for the time being. It seems counterintuitive but when I kept them together the calf was sipping all day and things just kept getting worse. I mostly separated to get a better estimate of what she is producing - I take a gallon in the morning from the front as the calf gets the back. Calf takes it all at night.
So, I quick scan craigslist for any possibles and come up with only one that looks promising. 5 years old, 2nd lactation, (had a long first) nice udder, good hand milking teats, shiny coat - so I head out for a 3 hour drive to find a pitiful skinny cow with horribly long feet. :/ The picture in the ad was 30 days old and she had really dropped off since that time. 3+ months fresh like my girl and not bred back - (fine because I have a little bull this year) Pleasant submissive personality, easy milker and coat was shiny - I brought her home.
Sent the milk off for testing and meanwhile have been feeding the pigs with her milk. Testing came back good and she is gaining weight while upping her production every day... YAY!! The lady that had her was new to cows, had horrible hay and giving her a double handful of barley when she milked.
For a few days after - I was wondering if I had made a mistake because she was scary thin when I loaded her but -*horrifyingly emaciated* by the time I got her unloaded 3.5 hours later. OMG. A diamond in the rough is what I was going with.
Anyway, meet Bess... I've had her 1 week today.